Acrobat Pro is erasing redlined text

Report · Jun 24, 2025

This problem is with Acrobat Pro, version 2025.001.20531, 64 Bit. The problem has just arisen.

I work in the legal field, and we exchange documents where changes are redlined, that is, erasures are crossed out and new text is underlined.

Acrobat Pro is now automatically accepting these changes when I convert my document using Created PDF in Word. However, if I print the document to the Adobe PDF printer, the changes remain.

I'm attaching an example Word file, showing both an erasure and a new addition. Two pdfs are also attached - one created from Word using the Acrobat Create PDF function, and the other created using the Printe Adobe PDF function (both functions in Word). You will see that the Create PDF document has erased the second sentence and "accepted" the third sentence, while the Print PDF document is showing the Word document exactly as is. When I create a pdf of a Word document, I need the document to be exactly the same - not automatically accepting the marked changes.

I have looked at the settings for the Acrobat Create PDF function, and I don't see an option to toggle automatically accepting marked changes.

Report · Jun 29, 2025

@Katherine_Edman0063 so what can tell, is a significant difference in how the "Create PDF" function (often powered by the PDFMaker add-in in Word) and the "Print to Adobe PDF" function handle revisions. When you use the "Create PDF" function directly from Word, PDFMaker is designed to intelligently convert the Word document, and it often has default settings that "process" Word's tracked changes. This processing can include automatically incorporating accepted changes or removing rejected ones, especially if certain Word settings are configured to display a "final" version rather than "all markup." On the other hand, "Print to Adobe PDF" acts more like a virtual printer; it takes whatever is visually displayed on your Word screen at that exact moment and converts it into an image-like PDF, effectively bypassing any intelligent processing of tracked changes and thus preserving your redlines as they appear.

Try this, the key to resolving the "Create PDF" function lies in adjusting the PDFMaker settings within Word itself, rather than just in Acrobat. While you've looked at Acrobat's settings, the control for how Word's tracked changes are handled during PDF creation is usually found in the Adobe Acrobat tab or preferences within Microsoft Word. You'll want to look for options related to "Convert comments and tracked changes" or "Include markup" within the PDFMaker settings. There should be a way to ensure that "Show Markup" options are preserved, or that the document is converted as it appears with all revisions visible, rather than in its "Final" or "No Markup" state. It's a subtle but powerful distinction that determines whether your redlines are "flattened" or intelligently interpreted by Acrobat during the conversion.